Integrating hydrogels manipulate ECM deposition after spinal cord injury for specific neural reconnections via neuronal relays.

A bioinspired hydrogel composed of hyaluronic acid-graft-dopamine (HADA) and a designer peptide HGF-(RADA)4-DGDRGDS (HRR) was presented to enhance tissue integration following spinal cord injury (SCI). The HADA/HRR hydrogel manipulated the infiltration of PDGFRß+ cells in a parallel pattern, transforming dense scars into an aligned fibrous substrate that guided axonal regrowth. Further incorporation of NT3 and curcumin promoted axonal regrowth and survival of interneurons at lesion borders, which served as relays for establishing heterogeneous axon connections in a target-specific manner. Notable improvements in motor, sensory, and bladder functions resulted in rats with complete spinal cord transection. The HADA/HRR + NT3/Cur hydrogel promoted V2a neuron accumulation in ventral spinal cord, facilitating the recovery of locomotor function. Meanwhile, the establishment of heterogeneous neural connections across the hemisected lesion of canines was documented in a target-specific manner via neuronal relays, significantly improving motor functions. Therefore, biomaterials can inspire beneficial biological activities for SCI repair.

JAK1, SKI, ZBTB16 as potential biomarkers mediate the inflammatory response in keratoconjunctivitis sicca.

Keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) is an ocular condition characterized by insufficient tear production and inflammatory irritation, with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) being a major causative factor. This study aimed to extract patient transcriptomic data from the GEO database to identify signature genes associated with the diagnosis and treatment of KCS and the expression of three key genes were experimentally verified. We performed a difference analysis on the SS patient dataset and performed a Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis on the resulting genes. Additionally, a Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) was constructed. Machine learning techniques were employed to analyze the most strongly correlated gene modules with SS traits. These findings were further validated using KCS immune-correlation microarrays as a validation set. The correlation of the three identified genes with 22 immune cells was assessed through immune infiltration analysis. Subsequently, a rat model of desiccated keratoconjunctivitis was established, and the modeling situation and expression of characteristic genes were analyzed at the morphological, tissue, and molecular levels. Bioinformatic prediction revealed that the expression of JAK1, SKI, ZBTB16 not only differed in the machine learning validation set, but also correlated with some immune cells in the immune infiltration analysis. The results of animal experiments showed that the transcription and expression levels of these three genes were significantly different in rat KCS tissues and normal tissues, and there were also differences in the expression of JAK1 and SKI in rat peripheral blood, as well as significant up-regulation of the expression of related inflammatory factors in KCS tissues. Through bioinformatics prediction and animal experimental validation, this study identified three differentially expressed genes in SS mediated KCS patients, which provide new potential biological targets for the diagnosis and treatment of KCS.

Pollution-free interface of 2D-MoS2/1D-CuO vdWs heterojunction for high-performance photodetector.

Van der Waals heterostructures provide a new opportunity for constructing new structures and improving the performance of electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, the existing methods of constructing heterojunctions are still faced with problems such as impurity introduction, or complex preparation process and limited scope of application. Herein, a physisorption method is proposed to composite CuO nanorods on the surface of MoS2nanosheets. CuO nanorods and MoS2form type-Ⅱ heterojunctions, which promotes the separation and transport of photo-generated charge carriers. More importantly, compared with the transfer and coating methods, the physical adsorption method avoids the introduction of auxiliary materials during the whole process of constructing the heterojunction, and therefore effectively reduces the damage and pollution at the interface. The optimized MoS2/CuO heterojunction photodetector achieves a high photoresponsivity of ∼680.1 A W-1and a fast response speed of ∼29µs. The results demonstrate that the physisorption method provides a feasible approach to realize high performance photodetectors with pollution-free interfaces, and it can also be extended to the development of other low-dimensional hybrid heterojunction electronic and optoelectronic devices.

A Bioinspired Injectable, Adhesive, and Self-Healing Hydrogel with Dual Hybrid Network for Neural Regeneration after Spinal Cord Injury.

Hydrogel-based regenerated scaffolds show promise as a platform for neural regeneration following spinal cord injury (SCI). Nevertheless, the persistent problem of poor mechanical strength and limited integration with the host tissue still exists. In this study, a bioinspired hydrogel with highly sophisticated features for neural regeneration after SCI is developed. The hydrogel is composed of dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA)-grafted chitosan and a designer peptide, offering a unique set of qualities such as being injectable, having self-healing abilities, and adhering to tissues. Compared to conventional hydrogels, this hydrogel ensures a significant promotion of immune response modulation and axon regrowth while featuring synapse formation of various neurotransmitters and myelin regeneration. Subsequently, functional recoveries are enhanced, including motor function, sensory function, and particularly bladder defect repair. These positive findings demonstrate that the hydrogel has great potential as a strategy for repairing SCI. Moreover, the versatility of this strategy goes beyond neural regeneration and holds promise for tissue regeneration in other contexts. Overall, this proposed hydrogel represents an innovative and multifaceted tool for engineering structures in the biomedical field.

Al/TiO2 composite as a photocatalyst for the degradation of organic pollutants.

TiO2 is a catalyst that can effectively degrade organic pollutants with the following advantages, low cost, simplicity, and pollution-free nature. In recent years, the non-noble plasmonic metal Al has effectively improved the photocatalytic performance of TiO2. However, the current reports are limited to the photocatalytic performance of Al/TiO2 on the substrate, which requires expensive large-scale vacuum equipment. In this study, monodispersed Al particles were proposed to enhance the photocatalysis of TiO2. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of Al is proven by finite difference time domain method (FDTF) simulation. Then, Al/TiO2 composites were prepared by combining monodispersed Al and TiO2. The influence of ligand (glutathione (GSH), glutamic acid (GAG), or 3-mercaptopropane acid (MPA)), Al size (40 to 300 nm), and the ratio of Al to TiO2 (0.5:1 to 10:1) on the photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) by Al/TiO2 were discussed. The obtained results showed that the Al/TiO2 composite which were prepared with 200 nm Al particles, GSH as the ligand bridge, and an Al:TiO2 ratio of 1:1 had the best MB degradation effect. It can degrade 97.7% of 10 mg/L MB in 100 min. The reaction rate of the Al/TiO2 composite with the optimal photocatalytic performance is k=3.36×10-2 min-1, which is 10 times that of P25 TiO2. In addition, Al/TiO2 has a good photocatalytic effect on rhodamine B (RhB) and crystal violet (CV). Therefore, Al/TiO2 composites with the advantage of high efficiency are a type of potential photocatalytic material that can be used for the photocatalytic treatment of organic pollutants in water.

SRSF9 promotes colorectal cancer progression via stabilizing DSN1 mRNA in an m6A-related manner.

BACKGROUND: Serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 9 (SRSF9) is a classical RNA-binding protein that is essential for regulating gene expression programs through its interaction with target RNA. Whether SRSF9 plays an essential role in colorectal cancer (CRC) progression and can serve as a therapeutic target is largely unknown. Here, we highlight new findings on the role of SRSF9 in CRC progression and elucidate the underlying mechanism. METHODS: CRC cell lines and clinical tissue samples were used. qRT-PCR, Western blotting, immunohistochemistry (IHC), gain- and loss-of-function assays, animal xenograft model studies, bioinformatic analysis, methylated single-stranded RNA affinity assays, gene-specific m6A quantitative qRT-PCR, dual-luciferase reporter assays and RNA stability assays were performed in this study. RESULTS: The expression level of SRSF9 was higher in CRC cell lines than that in an immortal human intestinal epithelial cell line. Overexpression of SRSF9 was positively associated with lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage. Functionally, SRSF9 promoted cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro and xenograft growth. The results of bioinformatic analysis indicated that DSN1 was the downstream target of SRSF9. In CRC cells and clinical tissue samples, the expression of SRSF9 was positively associated with the expression of DSN1. Knockdown of DSN1 partially inhibited the SRSF9-induced phenotype in CRC cells. Mechanistically, we further found that SRSF9 is an m6A-binding protein and that m6A modifications were enriched in DSN1 mRNA in CRC cells. Two m6A modification sites (chr20:36773619-36773620 and chr20:36773645-chr20:36773646) in the SRSF9-binding region (chr20:36773597-36773736) of DSN1 mRNA were identified. SRSF9 binds to DSN1 in an m6A motif- and dose-dependent manner. SRSF9 modulates the expression of DSN1 in CRC cells. Such expression regulation was largely impaired upon methyltransferase METTL3 knockdown. Moreover, knockdown of SRSF9 accelerated DSN1 mRNA turnover, while overexpression of SRSF9 stabilized DSN1 mRNA in CRC cells. Such stabilizing was also weakened upon METTL3 knockdown. CONCLUSION: Overexpression of SRSF9 was associated with lymph node metastasis and Dukes stage in CRC. Knockdown of DSN1 eliminated the effects by SRSF9 overexpression in CRC. Our results indicated that SRSF9 functions as an m6A-binding protein (termed "reader") by enhancing the stability of DSN1 mRNA in m6A-related manner. Our study is the first to report that SRSF9-mediated m6A recognition has a crucial role in CRC progression, and highlights SRSF9 as a potential therapeutic target for CRC management.

Fabrication of periodic microscale stripes of silver by laser interference induced forward transfer and their SERS properties.

The micro-stripe structure was prepared by laser interference induced forward transfer technique, composed of Ag nano-particles (NPs). The effects of the film thickness with the carbon nano-particles mixed polyimide (CNPs@PI), Ag film thickness, and laser fluence were studied on the transferred micro-stripe structure. The periodic Ag micro-stripe with good resolution was obtained in a wide range of CNPs@PI film thickness from âˆ¼0.5 to âˆ¼1.0µm for the Ag thin film âˆ¼20 nm. The distribution of the Ag NPs composing the micro-stripe was compact. Nevertheless, the average size of the transferred Ag NPs was increased from âˆ¼41 to âˆ¼197 nm with the change of the Ag donor film from âˆ¼10 to âˆ¼40 nm. With the increase of the laser fluence from 102 to 306 mJ·cm-2per-beam, the transferred Ag NPs became aggregative, improving the resolution of the corresponding micro-stripe. Finally, the transferred Ag micro-stripe exhibited the significant surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) property for rhodamine B (RhB). While the concentration of the RhB reached 10-10mol·L-1, the Raman characteristic peaks of the RhB were still observed clearly at 622, 1359 and 1649 cm-1. These results indicate that the transferred Ag micro-stripe has potential application as a SERS chip in drug and food detection.

High-Response, Ultrafast-Speed, and Self-Powered Photodetection Achieved in InP@ZnS-MoS2 Phototransistors with Interdigitated Pt Electrodes.

Various hybrid zero-dimensional/two-dimensional (0D/2D) systems have been developed to fabricate phototransistors with better performance compared to two-dimensional (2D) layered materials as well as broaden potential applications. Herein, we integrated environment-friendly InP@ZnS core-shell QDs with high efficiency of light absorption and light-emitting properties with bilayer MoS2 for the realization of 0D/2D mixed-dimensional phototransistors. Interdigitated (IDT) electrodes with Pt-patterned arrays, acting as light collectors as well as plasmonic resonators, can further enhance light harvesting from the InP@ZnS-MoS2 hybrid phototransistors, contributing to achieving a photoresponsivity as high as 1374 A·W-1. Moreover, thanks to the asymmetric Pt/MoS2 Schottky junction at the source/drain contact, a self-powered characteristic with an ultrafast speed of 21.5 µs was achieved, which is among the best performances for 2D layered material-based phototransistors. In terms of these features, we demonstrated the artificial synapse network with short-time plasticity based on the self-powered photodetection device. Our work reveals the great potential of 0D/2D hybrid phototransistors for high-response, ultrafast-speed, and self-powered photodetectors coupled with artificial neuromorphic function.